LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Iggy Pop is currently preparing to release his seventeenth album entitled Post Pop Depressionon 18 MAR 2016. The man is a living rock and roll legend and a musical genius. Just consider the songwriting prowess Iggy Pop imbued into composing what would go on to become one of David Bowie’s most recognisable hits “China Girl“, which, by the way, is not about miscegenation.

THE NEW YORK TIMES—[21 JAN 2016] LOS ANGELES — “Now that you’re all greased up, how about ‘Lust for Life’?” Iggy Pop said in a voice that was part Midwestern twang, part grizzled prospector to his new band as they rehearsed at a North Hollywood studio. Although it was Mr. Pop’s first time singing with the group, which had been preparing on its own, the mood shifted quickly from tension to elation. After each song, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, who assembled the musicians, asked Mr. Pop if he wanted to wrap up, but Mr. Pop kept calling for more: first new songs and then oldies from “The Idiot” and “Lust for Life,” his two late-1970s collaborations with David Bowie. Mr. Pop, 68, wore a dark, patterned shirt, baggy black pants and sandals. He had started the rehearsal seated, conserving his energy, but by the end he was strutting.

“We’re hanging on by the skin of our teeth, but we’re making it through,” Mr. Homme recalled of the group’s initial practice with its singer a few days later. “And by the time we get to ‘Lust for Life,’ we’re all sweating and dancing around with this moronic look on our faces. Iggy looked over at me and …” Mr. Homme mimed a wink and a half-concealed thumbs up. “With Iggy, compliments are not forthcoming. It was a real moment.”

The new songs are from “Post Pop Depression” (Loma Vista), an album Mr. Pop and Mr. Homme wrote and recorded together with utmost secrecy and full independence, which is scheduled to be released in March. Its music shows both songwriters’ clear fingerprints: the pithy, hard-nosed clarity of Mr. Pop’s lyrics and the unflinching tone of his voice; and the crispness, angularity and deft convolutions of Mr. Homme’s chords and melodies. (The group will be making its debut on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” Thursday night.)

In some ways, “Post Pop Depression” also picks up where “Lust for Life” left off. “Where those records pointed, it stopped,” Mr. Homme said. “But without copying it,” he continued, “that direction actually goes for miles. And when you keep going for miles you can’t see these two records any more.”

The lyrics reflect on memories, hint at characters and offer advice and confessions; they can be hard-nosed, remorseful, flippant, combative or philosophical. The album’s theme, Mr. Pop said, is: “What happens after your years of service? And where is the honor?”

Offstage, Mr. Pop is slighter and calmer than the hyperactive rocker he becomes in concert. His face is lined, his long hair unfussy; he has a professorial pair of eyeglasses. He answers questions thoughtfully, with a clear gaze, an occasional self-deprecating laugh and a vocabulary far more elaborate than the monosyllables that nail down his songs; he quoted de Tocqueville and the French author Michel Houellebecq.